Christmas with the Kurosakis
by Nate Grey
Summary: A mysterious fire at Orihime's forces her to stay with the Kurosakis a few days before Christmas. After all, it's not as if Orihime would burn her own house down just to give a worthwhile gift, right?


Notes: I wanted to do a Christmas story, and I've been neglecting the Bleach fandom lately. Sorry I didn't get this out in time, but one day late isn't so bad, considering I got snowed in and got to miss work. Note that this is set long before Orihime goes to Hueco Mundo, which explains (at least to some extent) her innocence and lack of, shall we say, common sense.

Summary: Shortly before Christmas, a mysterious fire at Orihime's forces her to move in with the Kurosakis. Despite all the problems she causes, no one really wants her to leave. And perhaps that in itself is her own gift to them.

* * *

**Christmas with the Kurosakis**

**A Bleach Oneshot by**

**Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)**

* * *

Inoue Orihime was no stranger to the Kurosaki family. Aside from Arisawa Tatsuki, she was the only other girl Ichigo's age that could accompany him home and not be received with suspicion (from Yuzu, who could be quite overprotective of Ichigo around strangers) or outright hostility (from Karin, who only liked Yuzu as far as girls went, and just tolerated the rest to various degrees). After walking Yuzu and Karin home once from elementary school, Orihime had earned Isshin's seal of approval, as well as a marriage contract (drawn up on a napkin with ketchup) between her and Ichigo (everyone else firmly pretended it had never happened, but Orihime now kept the napkin in a tiny picture frame, and would die before she allowed another pair of eyes to see it).

Ichigo, on the other hand, had basically always thought of Orihime as Tatsuki's weird but nice best friend. For some time, they had only known each other through Tatsuki, and since Orihime had never made fun of his hair or tried to fight him, Ichigo had no problems with her. Occasionally he found himself worrying about her, because she tended to fall down a lot and bump into things while he was nearby, but having collided with her skull several times and coming out on the worst end, Ichigo decided that nothing short of a tree falling on Orihime would seriously hurt her (and only if it somehow missed her head).

Then Ichigo became a shinigami (or rather, he was finally acknowledged as one), and Orihime became one of the few friends that accompanied him into battle. He had never really thought she was suited for it, but without her Ichigo and his friends would have died several times over.

Through all of it, Ichigo had noticed something odd about Orihime: she didn't have a boyfriend, ever. This was strange for several reasons. First and foremost, Orihime was very pretty, even by Ichigo's somewhat inexperienced standards. He had thought something might develop between her and Ishida, but wasn't really surprised when it didn't: Ishida was a jerk even on his best days, but at least he'd always been nice to Orihime. Then there was the fact that Orihime spent much of her time around Tatsuki. Even if Tatsuki had scared off a good portion of potential boyfriends, it was nearly impossible not to notice how attractive Orihime was by comparison. Finally, Orihime was obviously not the most intelligent of Ichigo's friends (that was unfortunately Ishida, which went a long way in explaining why he was such a jerk). Ichigo would have thought that this would make her even more desirable to most guys, if only so they could take advantage of her, but it had simply never happened as far as he knew.

He'd even attempted to research the problem, with no results. Anytime he asked Tatsuki about Orihime and dating, she got angry for no reason and punched him. This was only a problem because even though Tatsuki could definitely take a punch, Ichigo could not bring himself to hit a girl.

In short, Ichigo had no idea why Orihime didn't have a boyfriend. It was just one of many things he didn't understand about her, so that was fine. What he did understand was that she was a friend, and that was all he needed to know.

At first.

* * *

Everyone at the dinner table froze when the doorbell rang.

Ichigo glanced at his father expectantly, but was not at all surprised when Yuzu got up to answer the door.

"Who would be at the door during dinner time?" Karin complained.

Ichigo could have tried to explain to her that most people outside of the house didn't know the family's rather strict dinner schedule, but Karin saw the look on his face and gave him a preemptive kick under the table, so he left it alone.

The relative quiet was suddenly interrupted by Yuzu shrieking, "Orihime nee-chan! What happened?"

Ichigo, Karin, and their father immediately bolted for the front door, convinced that Orihime must have been bleeding heavily, severely hurt, or mortally wounded. Instead, they found Yuzu tugging a soot-covered Orihime and her very large suitcase into the house.

"Oh, um, hi, everyone!" Orihime chirped, waving and smiling brightly.

"Inoue, what happened to you?" Ichigo demanded, taking the suitcase from her at once.

"There was a tiny fire at my place," Orihime answered, still beaming.

Ichigo took a good look at her blackened clothes. "I'm guessing you started it?"

"I guess I must have! I was cooking something on the stove, and then Tatsuki called me, and I sort of forgot to keep an eye on the stove, and then there was this HUGE fire-"

"You said it was tiny," Karin pointed out, frowning.

Orihime blinked, her smile dimming a bit. "Oh, well, it was! Before I threw some cabbage on it."

There was a long pause.

"Orihime nee-chan, why did you throw cabbage on the fire?" Yuzu asked hesitantly.

"I needed to put something wet on it, and cabbage was the only thing I had at the time."

Ichigo took a deep breath. "Inoue, was the cabbage wet because you'd washed it in the sink?"

"Yup!"

"So, why not just use water from the sink?"

"Kurosaki-kun, you're not supposed to put water on grease fires!"

Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose. "And were you cooking with grease at all, Inoue?"

"Nope!"

Ichigo sighed very loudly. "So, AGAIN, why not use water?"

Orihime stared at him. "I don't know..." she murmured.

"So how bad was the fire?" Karin asked, sensing they were going in circles.

"Um, when I left it was coming out of the windows..."

Yuzu immediately ran to the phone and started dialing the fire department.

"Well, you can't go home," Ichigo said, starting to realize the reason for the suitcase, "so you probably want to stay here, right?"

"Would that be okay?" Orihime hesitantly.

"Of course, Orihime-chan!" Isshin practically roared, grasping her hands. "We wouldn't dream of having you stay anywhere else!"

"Really? Thank you so much, Isshin-san!" Orihime cried, hugging him.

Isshin laughed loudly and patted her on the head, a bit harder than was absolutely necessary. "Nonsense! And I've told you, feel free to call me Papa Isshin!"

"Yes, thank you, Papa Isshin!"

Ichigo frowned, not liking their new-found closeness for some reason. "Well, I'll take her suitcase up to the girls' room."

Orihime immediately turned to Karin and bowed. "Karin-chan, I'm so sorry for just barging into your room without asking!"

Karin rolled her eyes and bopped Orihime lightly on her head. "Don't be stupid, it's fine. Yuzu and I have shared my bed before. Just follow Ichigo, he'll show you which one is Yuzu's."

Ichigo felt very odd as he led Orihime up to his sisters' bedroom, and it wasn't until he put her suitcase down that he realized why. "Hey, Inoue. You said you were on the phone with Tatsuki. Does she know you're here?"

Orihime gasped. "Oh no! I forgot to tell her what happened! I must have dropped the phone when I saw the smoke!"

"Okay, well, why wouldn't you go to her house? She's your best friend, and I'm pretty sure her place is closer to yours."

"Yes, but I knew Isshin-san was a doctor."

Ichigo couldn't really argue with that, so he let the subject drop. Still, he thought it odd that Orihime hadn't gone to Tatsuki first. Really, he was more amazed that she'd even thought of going to a doctor at all, much less one who lived nearby. A loud gurgling from Orihime's stomach reminded him that she hadn't eaten dinner, and Ichigo blushed when his own stomach joined in, as he hadn't finished his own dinner. "We were in the middle of dinner, so you might as well join us, Inoue. Don't worry, Yuzu always makes more than enough."

"Well, I wouldn't want to intrude," Orihime protested loudly over the continued gurgling from her stomach.

Ichigo just shook his head and grabbed her hand, dragging her after him. "Come on, we're only getting hungrier standing here."

Orihime had no more protests, but her face was bright red all through dinner, and she kept sneaking nervous glances at Ichigo.

Ichigo was very relieved when Orihime went to bed early, as he was hoping that a good night's sleep might relax her a bit. Plus, it meant that she didn't see the wrestling match that soon followed over the last piece of chocolate cake (Ichigo won thanks only to a well-timed dropkick to the center of his father's forehead).

* * *

The next morning was just as awkward as the previous night, unfortunately.

Ichigo completely forgot that he had a female, unrelated house guest, and headed for the bathroom shirtless as he usually did. Karin didn't care so long as he had pants on, and Yuzu simply saw it was an opportunity to check for bruises that Ichigo either hadn't told her about, or hadn't explained to her satisfaction.

Orihime was exiting the bathroom at the same moment, and they bumped into each other quite literally.

Ichigo was honestly the more surprised of the two, and could only gape as the previous night's event's rushed back into his head.

Orihime just stared at him, her face turning red again.

This went on until Karin, who was always extra grumpy in the morning, dragged herself into the hallway, found them blocking her way, and snapped, "Move it!"

Ichigo and Orihime both jumped aside, and Karin went into the bathroom, muttering angrily as she slammed the door behind her.

"Uh, Inoue," Ichigo finally said. "Sleep well?"

Orihime nodded rapidly. "Yes, thank you. I can see why Rukia-san liked staying here so much."

Ichigo opened his mouth, about to tell her that Rukia had actually stayed in his closet, but decided a second later that maybe it wasn't the kind of thing that would make the situation less awkward. Completely the opposite, in fact. "Well, that was a little different. It's true she didn't really know anyone else around here at the time, but I think she could have crashed at Urahara-san's shop if she was willing to do some chores. Anyway, it was more convenient with her here all the time, since I couldn't transform into a shinigami without her help at first."

For no reason that Ichigo could understand, the red drained out of Orihime's face at once, and she looked very sad. "Oh. I forgot. She was here because you needed her. I'm just... in the way."

Ichigo wasn't sure how she'd come up with that, but before he could correct her, Orihime turned and ran back into his sisters' room, closing the door behind her.

* * *

As he suspected Orihime's mood would not improve any time soon, Ichigo was hoping to eat breakfast and head to school early, so that he wouldn't have to walk with her. Yuzu ruined this plan by refusing to serve breakfast until everyone was at the table. Just as Ichigo had feared, Orihime was quiet and withdrawn, and all attempts to engage her in conversation failed. Ichigo had expected this treatment for him, but he was amazed to see that even Yuzu couldn't get a smile out of Orihime. He knew Orihime had to be really upset, but he was at a loss as to how he was supposed to fix things.

Even worse, he couldn't just leave things that way: Yuzu pulled him aside and asked him to make a special effort to be nicer to Orihime. Karin said nothing, but gave him a look that promised pain and annoyance if he let Yuzu down. Isshin's only contribution was to loudly suggest that only a fool would pass up the pleasure of escorting Orihime to school. Ichigo made a mental note to punch his father in the gut the next time he got a chance.

Orihime was silent the entire way to school. At least, that seemed to be her plan, but Ichigo grew desperate after the third block without a word between them.

"Look," he snapped, "I don't know what you're upset about, but whatever I did, I'm sorry, okay? I'm not used to having any girls other than Yuzu and Karin at home, and they either don't care when I mess up or forgive me and move on. But I'm not a mind reader, so if I hurt you, you have to tell me or I won't know I'm supposed to apologize."

Orihime blinked slowly, clearly startled. "You didn't do anything wrong, Kurosaki-kun," she said at last.

"Then why haven't you said a word to me since this morning?" he demanded.

"I... I didn't want to be in the way any more than I already am."

"Who told you that you were in the way? It couldn't have been anyone in my family."

"I just assumed-"

"You were wrong," Ichigo said flatly. "If you were in the way, I'd tell you so you wouldn't be anymore. But I didn't, so you're not, so stop thinking that."

"O-Okay," Orihime whispered fearfully.

Ichigo sighed and shook his head. "Inoue, just tell me exactly what part of our conversation upset you, in detail, and I won't bring it up anymore."

"You said that it was convenient when Rukia-san stayed with you, because you needed her. But you don't need me at all..."

"Are you insane?" Ichigo blurted out before he could stop himself. "Okay, Rukia gives me advice, yells at me when I need it, and she can hold her own in a fight. But you're the only one that can actually keep us all in one piece. Of course we need you. We'd need you even if you didn't have any powers."

"Why?" Orihime asked with wide eyes.

"Because, you're..." He trailed off uncertainly. "Well, because you're Inoue. There's no one else like you." To him, it did not really seem like a good compliment at all, but from the way Orihime's face lit up, apparently he was wrong. "Feel better now?"

"Yes, Kurosaki-kun," Orihime replied with a smile.

Ichigo nodded, still feeling rather confused, and started walking again, doing his best to ignore it when she began skipping happily beside him.

* * *

Ichigo had expected that Tatsuki might be upset, having had no idea what had happened to Orihime. If she had gone to Orihime's house and found that there was a fire, she'd be even more worried. Still, he assumed that the moment Tatsuki saw Orihime was safe, all problems would be solved.

And they were. Violently.

Ichigo had barely taken three steps onto the school grounds when Tatsuki ran up and punched him in the face. He had certainly taken harder hits, but she caught him off guard, and if Orihime had not managed to catch him when he stumbled backwards, he could have been hurt a lot worse.

"Tatsuki, what the hell-" he began, only for Tatsuki to cut him off.

"You JERK! How could you not tell me that Orihime was with you?" she yelled. "Her house burned to the ground! I had no idea what happened to her!"

Ichigo turned to Orihime with his eyebrows raised in surprise. "You didn't tell her you were staying with us?"

Orihime was a rare person, in that she simply could not lie convincingly. So when she glanced nervously from side to side and murmured, "Um, I forgot," no one believed her.

Tatsuki frowned at her, but shook it off. "Well, it doesn't matter," she decided. "After school, we'll pack up your things and you can stay with me, Orihime."

There was a pause, and then Orihime said, softly but clearly, "No."

Both Ichigo and Tatsuki gaped at her.

"You meant to say 'yes,' right?" Ichigo guessed after a long moment.

Orihime looked directly into his eyes. "I meant what I said, Kurosaki-kun."

"Orihime?" Tatsuki asked, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice. "You don't want to stay with me?"

"Of course I want to, Tatsuki," Orihime assured her. "But I can't this time. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"But why? What did I do?"

Orihime smiled sadly and hugged her friend. "Oh, Tatsuki, you didn't do anything wrong. This is just something I need to do, for me. I'll be fine. Kurosaki-kun and his family are taking great care of me. It's been so long since I spent any time with his sisters, and I miss them. That's all."

Without knowing why, Ichigo suddenly said, "You could stay with us, too, Tatsuki. You'd have to share a bed with Inoue, but-"

"No, that's okay," Tatsuki interrupted, giving him an odd look. "Thanks, though." She hesitated, then added quickly, "Sorry about punching you."

Ichigo shrugged. "No biggie. You've done it before."

Tatsuki laughed weakly. "That's true."

"Maybe you could still stop by later," Orihime suggested. "I'm sure Yuzu-chan wouldn't mind cooking for one more person."

"I'd like that," Tatsuki admitted. "Maybe I will."

* * *

Though there were no more problems with Tatsuki, and Orihime seemed perfectly happy with her situation, Ichigo was still a little confused. He didn't know all that much about Orihime's powers, but he was pretty sure that if she could heal a giant like Jidanbo with almost no knowledge of medicine, she could probably put her house back the way it was before the fire. The problem was, Ichigo felt like this should have been an obvious solution, and even though he wanted to say so, he was worried that Orihime would take it wrong and be hurt all over again. Aside from that, he was pretty sure that Yuzu and Karin had missed her, and would be mad at him if he said anything that made Orihime leave them any sooner than she had to.

The longer Orihime stayed with the Kurosakis, the more she was behaving as if she had always been a part of the family. Not surprisingly, this was not always a good thing. Yuzu was having trouble constantly finding kitchen tasks for Orihime that wouldn't result in injury or a ruined meal. It might have been easier just to say that no help was needed, but Orihime was eager to volunteer, and Yuzu was too nice to refuse her. Karin probably had the worst luck of them all: since it was clear that she and Orihime had nothing in common, Orihime kept trying to invent hobbies that they could share. After their first disastrous attempt (Ichigo only knew it involved paint, three different cheeses, and thirty-seven water balloons; Karin refused to discuss it any further than that), Karin firmly decided that when she wanted to hang out with Orihime, she would pick the activity, time, and place herself, and Orihime could pay for it if necessary. Ichigo probably had it the easiest: the only thing Orihime ever wanted to do for him was his laundry, and Yuzu made sure that was always done with her supervision.

Still, Ichigo could not deny that as much trouble as Orihime's fairly frequent accidents caused, the house seemed happier with her in it, and no one ever even discussed the possibility that she should leave. Ichigo himself was starting to feel she should stay longer, if only so they could protect her from herself.

And then Karin had to go and ruin it all by telling him the truth.

* * *

"Orihime is in love with you, Ichi-nii."

Ichigo's only response was to stare at Karin as if she'd grown an extra head.

"What? She is."

"And you're telling me this, why?" Ichigo asked, sitting on his bed and trying his best to look busy.

Karin glared at him. "Because you obviously didn't know, and now you can do something about it!"

"Oh, really? What would you suggest?"

"Marrying her, for one thing."

Ichigo glared at her. "That's not funny, Karin."

"Maybe not, but it's not like you're going to do any better. She loves you, she likes us, and she's already living with us."

"For now," Ichigo added.

"Are you going to tell her to leave?"

"No."

Karin nodded. "Good. No one else is, either."

"So you like her?"

"Most of the time," Karin muttered. "I like her for you, anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I wouldn't mind if you two were dating."

Ichigo scowled. "Do you even care how I feel about it?"

"Are you saying you have no interest in dating her at all?" she challenged.

"No, but I guess I never really thought about it, either."

"Well, start. Either you make it work with Orihime, or get Rukia to move back in and make it work with her."

Ichigo actually paused to consider the two options. All he really had to do with Orihime was smile occasionally. With Rukia, he'd practically have to beat her up every month just to keep her from complaining too loudly. And while he wasn't completely opposed to the idea, with all the other fights to the death he usually got dragged into, he just didn't have the time or patience to deal with Rukia all of the time, no matter how good a comrade she was.

"Fine, I'll try to make things work with Orihime," he grumbled. "But if it doesn't work out-"

"Then feel free to tell her it was my idea. Maybe if she knows how much we like having her around, she'll stay even if you break her heart."

"Nice to know you've got so much faith in me, Karin."

"Why should I? Orihime's been following you around for years, and you only recently started being her friend. I had to tell you that she liked you. I'll consider you lucky if you don't screw things up the moment you leave this room. You may be a good shinigami, but you'd make a horrible boyfriend. That Orihime can look past that is a miracle in itself."

* * *

At first, because he was so worried about using the wrong words, Ichigo tried to date Orihime without her being aware of it. This did not go well at all: the first time he tried to hold Orihime's hand as they walked home from school, she'd jerked back, fallen off the sidewalk, and nearly got hit by a car. Mortified, Ichigo had been forced to explain what he was doing, not only to a red-faced Orihime, but to the amused driver, who finally suggested that Ichigo should stick to pick-up lines, and only then while he and Orihime were safely inside a building. Afterward, Ichigo was sure Orihime would never want to hold hands with him again, but to his great surprise, she wanted to practice it as much as possible, so that there were no more unfortunate incidents. Ichigo agreed, under the strict condition that she never shared the story with anyone else, and that she told no one that they were practicing. He wasn't sure he could stand any further embarrassment on the subject. Nearly as bad were his family's reactions: Yuzu was thrilled to see them holding hands, Isshin burst into happy tears, and Karin just nodded, as if she were pleased with Ichigo's progress.

With Christmas steadily growing closer, Ichigo focused his thoughts on getting Orihime a decent gift. He felt that was the best way to cement their relationship, and tried to find the one thing that would make Orihime the happiest. He finally decided on something unusual, rather than traditional: with Urahara's help, he managed to get his hands on an ornamental katana, and had the names of her Shun Shun Rikka inscribed on the hilt. Even to Orihime, he thought the message would be clear: he saw her not just as a friend or even a girlfriend, but as someone he trusted to watch his back in battle. Ichigo was sure that Orihime had wanted that for some time, and could think of no other way to show her that he approved. Though the katana was not cheap by any means, and he would owe Urahara a rather large favor, Ichigo felt he'd made the right choice.

* * *

The Kurosaki family had a somewhat odd tradition of renting and watching Yuzu's favorite children's movie on Christmas Eve. It featured a singing tadpole that had a voice remarkably similar to Kurosaki Masaki's, as Isshin had fortunately discovered one night while the twins were teething and his wife was out with Ichigo. Ichigo was entrusted with the task of renting since he came of age, as the movie was fairly popular and sometimes needed to be intimidated out of competing hands. Certainly it would have been easier to simply buy a copy of the movie, but Isshin insisted that the rental was part of the tradition.

Truthfully, Ichigo hated to watch the movie. It wasn't very good, and there were countless other, better ways to remember his mother. But this was Yuzu's, and he had to respect that, even if it meant sitting through an awful movie he'd seen a hundred times already.

Unfortunately, the rental store had no more copies of the movie this year, and after waiting around for a few hours to see if anyone would return theirs, Ichigo finally admitted defeat and went home empty-handed. He was sure that Yuzu would be crushed, and wracked his brain for a way to make it up to her, but it turned out to be unnessecary. Ichigo found Yuzu asleep on the couch, curled up with her head in Orihime's lap. Karin was starting to nod off as well, and had slumped against Orihime's side.

"They tried to wait up for you," Orihime explained softly, gently stroking Yuzu's hair. "Did you get the movie? Yuzu-chan said the tadpole was really cute."

Ichigo shook his head. "Sorry, they ran out of copies. Anyway, I think these two are running on fumes as it is." He chuckled as Karin's head finally flopped onto Orihime's shoulder and stayed there, while she began to snore lightly. "Help me get them up to bed? I'd better take Yuzu, she's the light sleeper." He bent down and carefully lifted Yuzu bridal style from the couch. Her only reaction was to shift slightly, sliding her arms around his neck.

Karin continued to snore even after Orihime picked her up, although they grew steadily louder until she was tucked in bed with Yuzu, where they stopped abruptly. Orihime kissed them goodnight before following Ichigo out of the bedroom, where he made a decision.

"We've been good friends for a while now, Inoue," he said.

"Yes, we have," she agreed.

"So, don't you think it's a little odd that we still don't call each other by our given names?"

Orihime considered this for all of three seconds. "No. Because I notice you only do that with people you're either really close to, or consider your equals. I-If you don't feel like I'm either one, then-"

"But I'm trying to say I do feel that way now," Ichigo explained patiently. "I just want to know if you'd be okay with it."

"I-I'm fine with it if you are," Orihime replied, though she sounded a little nervous.

Ichigo nodded, deciding to test the waters. "Then it's decided. Goodnight, Orihime."

"G-Goodnight, Ichigo-kun."

He frowned slightly. It wasn't quite what he'd been hoping for, but he could live with it for now.

* * *

Ichigo woke up on Christmas Day the same way he always did: with Yuzu and Karin trying to drag him out of bed, since they didn't like opening presents without him. Only now they had Orihime to help out, so Ichigo was actually halfway to the door before he woke up this time. They discovered Isshin snoring beneath the Christmas tree, drooling over a half-wrapped cookbook meant for Orihime (Ichigo noted later that most of the recipes only used spoons and a variety of foods that did not need to be heated in any way). Karin nearly kicked him awake, but Orihime asked her to let him sleep until it was time to open his gifts.

Ichigo got the usual haul, for him: practical things from Yuzu, such as winter accessories she'd made herself, and obvious gifts from Karin, such as an electric blanket and a blender, which he would have to be home to use in the first place. As usual, the only thing he got from his father was combat-related: a pair of bright orange boxing gloves. Even worse, he gave the same thing to Orihime, and to Ichigo's horror, he later found that Isshin had written "His" and "Hers" on the inner labels in permanent marker. Orihime seemed to like them, though, and suggested they try them out with Tatsuki (who, unknown to Ichigo, had also gotten a new pair of boxing gloves from Orihime, though in the usual red).

Orihime was thrilled to receive Ichigo's katana, and even gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Karin, while impressed, did not understand the significance and wasn't sure he'd actually deserved it.

At last, Orihime woke up Isshin so that he could open his gifts, after which she nervously announced that she had a gift for the whole family. She left the room for a few moments, and there were several loud noises from the kitchen that had Yuzu fairly worried. Then a large, wrapped box with eyeholes cut into it (which Orihime was obviously within) slowly made its way into the room and settled itself next to the tree. Karin sighed and made a show of unwrapping it when it became clear Orihime wasn't going to emerge unless someone made an effort to pretend along with her.

Naturally, Ichigo was not the only one slightly confused. "So your gift to us is you?" he asked hesitantly. He was starting to suspect (rather strongly) that the fire at Orihime's house had not really been an accident. Not that he would be mad if it hadn't been, just even more confused.

"Not just me," Orihime murmured. "I know that no one and nothing could ever replace the mother that you, Yuzu-chan, and Karin-chan lost, or the wife that Papa Isshin misses so much every day. But I thought, no, I hoped, that having a woman in the house again would help to heal a little of the pain in your hearts. That's my gift to you, all of you."

This was met with complete silence.

Then Yuzu burst into tears and flung herself at Orihime, hugging her tightly. Karin soon joined in, and while she was not crying, her eyes were suspiciously damp. Isshin was next, though he did not seem happy or sad, but his hug was no less enthusiastic than anyone else's.

Ichigo simply stared at Orihime as she kissed his sisters and wiped away their tears. He understood with startling clarity that he did not have to marry Orihime, or even date her. After what she had done for his family, she would always be a Kurosaki in their eyes, and definitely in his mother's as well. Sighing, he went to join in the hug, after which he would introduce Orihime to the enormous poster of his mother on the dining room wall. He had a feeling that they'd get along just fine.

**The End.**

* * *

Endnotes:

At least I think what I said about Ichigo and given names is accurate. If my memory serves, every shinigami whose given name he uses freely has either been defeated by him in a very close fight (thus earning his respect), or he considers them a friend for whatever reason.


End file.
